MILWAUKEE, Wis. (September 08, 2009)-While unemployment is not expected to increase in the last quarter of 2009, U.S. employers aren’t planning to increase their staff levels either.

In fact, according to a quarterly employment outlook survey conducted by Manpower Inc., employers are expected to keep their staffing levels relatively stable during Quarter 4 of 2009.

"The hiring intentions of U.S. companies continue to be sluggish," said Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres.

"While there are areas within the U.S. which are showing an uptick, we have yet to see the robust hiring intentions that would indicate a full labor market recovery," Joerres continued.

Out of more than 28,000 employers surveyed, 69% expect no change in their October - December hiring plans.

Twelve percent of employers surveyed anticipate an increase in staff levels, while 14% expect a decrease in payrolls, resulting in a Net Employment Outlook of -2%.

After seasonal adjustment, the Net Employment Outlook becomes -3%, the weakest in the history of the survey, which began in 1962.

The final 5% of employers indicated they were undecided about their hiring intentions.

All of the survey regions have considerably weaker employment outlooks compared to one year ago at this time and in comparison to the third quarter, the seasonally adjusted data reveals the Northeast has the weakest Outlook, the West and Midwest are relatively stable, and the South shows a slight increase in employer optimism.

The survey is released quarterly by Manpower Inc., an employment services company, to measure employers' intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforce during the next quarter.